my danger prone child

If I could wrap this sweet little angel up in a bubble wrapped ball and protect her from herself and the rest of the world I would! She had a rough couple of weeks in April and by rough I mean REALLY rough ... traumatic! It started with a double ear infection diagnosis after taking her in for her 18 month well baby visit. She had cold like symptoms but wasn't overly fussy, no fever, and hadn't been rubbing her ears or anything so I had no idea. I felt terrible.

Two nights later on a Saturday I had laid her down in her crib like I always do for bed time ... she doesn't always fall asleep right away and sometimes moves around in there but I knew something was wrong when I heard her cry out in pain. When I got in there I found her laying face down but no limbs were stuck in bars or anything. I carefully picked her up and she continued to cry. She was acting so rigid and we couldn't figure out if she had hurt her neck or back or something else entirely? After several minutes it was clear we needed to take her in and by the time we got down to the car she had loosened up in the back but had her right arm just clinging to her chest. We loosened the straps on her car seat as far as they would go to try and get it around her and I sat back there while Nic drove us to an urgent care.

At this point she wasn't in pain unless someone tried to move her arm so it quickly turned into a fun night out for her past her bed time with mom and dad. haha They had on cartoons, brought out bubbles, and gave her a green stuffed kitty to play with! Seriously the most calming, kid friendly, and incredible urgent care experience we've ever had!

 When the doctor came in she started her assessment with gently touching each of Lyla's arms while talking to her about the bubbles floating around the room. Then I noticed her grab her right arm pretty firmly and my eyes locked on to Lyla's face. I was consumed with her reaction and trying to console her while Nic watched the doctor completely twist her arm in two. She cried in the moment but I'm not kidding you, seconds later she was completely fine!!! Pain free and moving her right arm that was once clinging like a wounded bird wing to her chest! The doctor told us she had something called "Nursemaids elbow" and that it was extremely common in kids her age. Moments after the doctor re-set her dislocated elbow, she was handed a bubble wand to see if she would move it and it was like night and day difference. I can't even tell you how relieved Nic and I felt knowing our intuition to bring her in was the right thing to do and that it was the quickest fix we could have hoped for!

I was in shock taking this picture of her reaching her arm out to grab that bubble just minutes later ...

Unfortunately that wasn't the end ... three nights later she did it again. We had watched her on her baby monitor like a hawk for 48 hours making sure she wasn't wandering her crib and going to sleep soon after laying her down for bed. On the third night I stepped away from the monitor for 30 seconds to grab the load of laundry to be folded while I waited for her to fall asleep and I heard that awful piercing cry again ... sure enough, I went in there and this time, found her laying on her arm with it stuffed into the back of her diaper. Rushed her back to the urgent care and she had dislocated it again. The sweetest nurse came in between her vital check and the doctor seeing us and told me that she had a son this happened to constantly between the ages of 18 months to about 4 years old. She said that it happened randomly and anywhere so she had to always be prepared and that it could be the same for me too. She showed me how to re-locate it myself in a much less intimidating fashion than the doctor does it so that I would be prepared if it ever happened again. Thankfully it hasn't ... yet.

Another 2 days go by and now I'm just a neurotic wreck, completely stalking her every move. Lyla spotted a bird in our yard and was so focused on pointing to it and showing me, that as she stood up she lost her balance and fell flat on her face on the cement. Huge goose egg and bruised cheek. 

She has no fear and it is terrifying as a parent at times! Nope, scratch that, ALL THE TIME! With stairs, playground equipment, chairs, climbing, sailing down the driveway on the wiggle car, you name it, she has probably tried it. I love her so much and I just pray I can help her survive to adulthood! haha